Propagation of 2013 species almost complete!

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1 S e e ds to Re e ds L o wer Lakes Community Nurseries Newsletter Community Nurseries Network servicing the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Region The Community Nurseries Project is an initiative of the Milang and District Community Association Inc. and is part of the South Australian Government's Murray Futures program, funded by the Australian Government's Water for the Future initiative. Edition 14 March 2013 Contents page 2-4. What s happening in the nurseries 5. What s happening in the nurseries continued & Phytophthora workshop 6. Plant Profile & propagation tips Propagation of 2013 species almost complete! Welcome to the fourteenth edition of the Lower Lakes Community Nurseries Newsletter produced by the Lakes Hub. In this edition we would like to provide an update on our third season growing for the Coorong Lower Lakes & Murray Mouth Recovery Project. Lakes Hub contacts Milang Office phone info@lakeshub.com Meningie Office phone meningie@lakeshub.com Web Jo McPhee Lakes Hub Community Nursery Network Coordinator Phone Mobile Propagation almost complete in the Community Nurseries. The Community Nurseries Network have been busy transplanting seedlings and conducting regular stocktakes to track progress for 2013 propagation requirements. Once again the benefits of working as a network have enabled nurseries to swap seedling trays to fulfil orders. Another busy propagating season is almost complete for the network and it s volunteers who have once again done a fantastic job. 1

2 What s happening in the nurseries! Propagation for the 2013 season is drawing to a close with the volunteers transplanting the remainder of the seedlings to be ready in mid May. The recent bout of hot weather has been challenging for nursery managers but a lot of tender loving care has ensured the plants survived the heat well. Sowing the grasses later in the season (February) has been successful with good germination of most species. Regular stocktakes and communication between the network has Busy transplanting at Clayton Bay allowed us to swap seedlings between nurseries where extra s and shortfalls were identified. GWLAP Project Officer Leah Sullivan has also been assisting the group to identify possible substitute species so the group can transplant recommended species in good time. Milang Nursery extension (Before) Construction underway Milang Nursery extension (After) The Milang Environment Centre Community Nursery extensions are finished and Deb is certainly happy to have the extra space in the nursery. The nursery will have the facilities to grow 50,000 plants in the future and the extensions were completed just in time for the first round of quality assurance inspections. Deb s team of workers did a great job of constructing the windbreak & fabricating the benches and all that needs to be completed now is the irrigation. The Hindmarsh Island Land care Group have been busy constructing a new volunteer room at their nursery. The room is fully lined, has kitchen facilities for morning tea breaks and will be a good space for meetings. The volunteers at Hindmarsh Island are very spoilt with their new facilities and Leah and I were lucky enough to get a cup of tea in the new room. HILG have also employed a new nursery manager Andrea Clark who will take over the reins when Ange goes on a well deserved holiday. Andrea has a degree in botany and years of experience working with local native species. I look forward to working with Andrea and I am sure we can learn a lot from her. Melaleuca nursery at Meningie are really close to the mark with their numbers of 118,000 plants. Ten thousand of the plants will be planted at the Meningie Foreshore as landscape plantings to complement the Pelican Path. It has been a fantastic effort to grow the volume they have and Jane has managed the propagation season really well keeping on top of numbers and targets at all times with her oversized spread sheet. 2 Leah & Ange going over final numbers Things in top order at Melaleuca

3 What s Happening in the Nurseries! The Clayton Bay Nursery & Environment Group (formerly Clayton Bay Foreshore Committee) are a newly incorporated body who will continue to manage the CB nursery and undertake restoration works at the foreshore. The group welcomes new members and if you wish to become involved please call Carole on The Acacia pinguifolia are still growing well at Clayton Bay and Kylie Moritz from the SAMDBNRM, Jill Dennis and myself collected some leaf samples from parent plants at Finniss. These samples will be tested for genetic viability and results will be collated with sample results from the nursery stock at Clayton. The variation in size of the tube stock over the last 18 month growing period gives a good indication of which plants have greater genetic diversity. Overall the plants look great Acacia pinguifolia ready to go! and it will be good to get them into the ground this year. Nursery Inspections! L to R Kylie & Jill collecting leaf samples The first round of Community Nursery quality assurance inspections were conducted in February. Greg Dalton from Creation Care won the contract this year to inspect the nurseries and has provided lots of useful tips and assistance. Greg was really impressed with the operation of all of the nurseries and the main issues identified were plants or young seedling getting burnt in the hot weather. He suggested we leave our plants and seedling trays in the shade for longer (until mid March) to avoid this. Young Acacia seedlings seem to be more susceptible to burning and the gravel we use on the seedling trays gets quite hot in the February sun. The Finniss nursery promptly put up more shade cloth and it is obvious one of the members has spent a lot of time sailing from the set up they have. As the Hindmarsh Island nursery sow earlier their plants are more Extra shade at Finniss mature and able to withstand the warm conditions. We certainly noticed a difference in growth and health of plants that had been under shade for longer Alexandrina Nursery 3

4 School propagation. Once again propagation was carried out at Investigator College, Strathalbyn 7-12, Milang & Langhorne Creek campuses. They will be caring for their allocated plants (1,000 each) for the Milang Nursery. Most of the watering is done by hand by the students and parents with the exception of the Strathalbyn 7-12 campus who are fortunate enough to have an automatic irrigation system. Strathalbyn 7-12 Hort Students Eucalyptus Arboretum Tour In February the Lakes Hub & Community Nurseries Network organised a tour of the Eucalypt arboretum at Currency Creek. Dean Nicolle hosted two tours due to the large number of people attending (46). It was interesting to hear how Dean became involved in collecting Eucalypt seed from all over Australia and decided to plant an arboretum back in There are 7,000 individual plants at the site of more than 900 species. There are Langhorne Creek Students hard at work four planted and four pressed specimens for each species. He talked about the importance of collecting seed from the younger growth to increase viability and not to choose parent stock that have undesirable characteristics such as falling branches. He discussed his research on fire ecology and how Eucalypts regenerate after a fire. There are two main groups of eucalypt, a mallee type which has a lignotuber and sprouts new shoots after fire and obligate seeders where the trees die and and come up as seedlings after a fire event. Dean also discussed the research they are doing on carbon sequestration which was really interesting. Mature Eucalyptus maculata (Spotted gum) are cut down and every component of the tree is weighed (leaf & branches). The stump is then covered with a black tub to stop light getting in and any new shoots are collected and samples sent to Germany. For the stump to grow the new shoots in the absence of light it needs to use carbon stored in the roots and stem and the research investigates whether it is using carbon sequestered not long ago or as long as 16 years ago. Deans passion and knowledge was inspiring and it was interesting to learn about how the arboretum is used for extensive research. 4

5 Horticulture Students Visit In March a group of six horticulture students from Eastern Fleurieu School Strathalbyn 7-12 campus visited Milang and Clayton nurseries. The students recently propagated plants for the Milang nursery as part of the ongoing school involvement. Agriculture teacher Mick Breen thought a nursery visit would be a good opportunity to expand their knowledge. They enjoyed the tour of the Milang nursery and it was then onto Clayton to get their hands dirty. The students assisted with some transplanting and collected seed from the gardens. They were also interested in the community veggie garden and one of the students is keen to come back for work experience in May. St Peters College Workshops In March Project Officer Kerri Bartley and myself ran 3 one hour workshops over 3 days with Year 6 students from St Peters College at their Finniss campsite. This was a good opportunity to educate the boys on local environmental issues. I discussed the Community Nursery Network and various aspects of the CLLMM program including seed collection, propagation, planting and monitoring. Kerri talked about the importance of controlling weeds in pre and post planting situations and took some samples of the more invasive weed species found in the area. Jo also took some seed and plant samples and explained how different plants have different methods of seed dispersal. The students found information on the traditional Ngarrindjeri uses of some plants interesting. Kerri talked about the Turtle Project and how devastating things were when the drought was at its peak. The students were very interested in how the tube worm affected the turtles and how local community and schools were involved in the recovery process. Kerri took along some live turtles which were a huge hit with the students. Many thanks to Amanda Vivian for letting us borrow the turtles from the Turtle Shed and proceeds from the workshops will go towards feeding the turtles at Milang Campus. Visitors from Mt Gambier A couple of weeks ago Ken Baker and his wife travelled the long distance from the south east to visit our nurseries. Ken has taken over the role of coordinating the Cross Border Community Nursery & Seed Collection Project. We visited Milang, Clayton, Finniss and Hindmarsh Island nurseries which gave them a good insight into the network. The focus of their project is to grow rare or difficult to propagate species that are often not included in revegetation projects because they require more special attention. They got some great ideas on nursery set up and operation and I am sure the feedback we gave them on what has and hasn t worked well will assist them with setting up their nursery. Many thanks to the nursery managers for sharing their time and knowledge. 5 Transplanting is so much fun. Collecting Enchylaena berries Teaching the students about tubeworm Chatting with Richard at Hindmarsh Island

6 Plant Profile: Halganea cyanea (Rough-Blue Flower) Low growing perennial shrub 30-50cm tall. Leaves are dark green, rough, 2-5cm long with sometimes toothed edges. Flowers are blue with 5 petals and occur in Winter to early Summer. Common in low rainfall mallee areas (Berkinshaw, 2009). Collect seed from Jan - March, however times may vary according to seasonal conditions. Collect mature fruit and dry in a sunny position. For unopened capsules the fruit may be rubbed over a sieve to release the seed. Seed requires no pre-treatment and can preferably be sown onto sandy soil from around the plants where the seed was collected. Cover with a fine layer of gravel and sow in late Autumn to early Winter (Bonney, nd). Alternatively, will grow well from soft tip or semi-hardwood cuttings propagated in early Spring. Propagation tips for Hibbertia species As some of the nurseries have had difficulty with propagating Hibbertia species from cuttings I thought some extra propagation information would be helpful. Although it is difficult to propagate from seed it may be worth trialling different methods in the nurseries. Seed can be collected January - March (Bonney,nd) with viable seed being darker in colour and non-viable seed smaller and light brown in colour. Increased dormancy of Hibbertia seed could be exacerbated by drier conditions or less reliable rainfall patterns. Evidence suggests that the seed needs 12 months of natural weathering followed by smoke treatment to enhance germination. A period of dry storage followed by smoke treatment may also increase germination. There are other methods such as smoke treatment followed by soaking in gibberallic acid (Ralph, 2009). It is difficult to collect large amounts of viable seed due to insect attack but we will endeavour to collect what we can for sowing next year. Another option is to try propagating by cutting earlier in the season using the vegetative tip growth to allow sufficient time for plants to mature. General Propagation Tips Hibbertia sericea (Silky guinea flower) Sow Acacia seed 6